Sunday, January 01, 2012

New Year. New Sleeve.

In case you haven't noticed, the holidays are over.

Signs are everywhere. This morning, Dolores took down the Christmas tree. To be perfectly accurate I should say that she took out the Christmas tree when she landed on it at 4 a.m.; but in our house it amounts to the same thing.

The cookies are all gone. So are the pies. Mrs. Teitelbaum has put her menorah back on the top shelf and flown to Fort Lauderdale to wait out the winter with her great-nephew Maurice the Florist. And instead of my inbox filling with junk messages that say LAST CHANCE PRE-HOLIDAY SALE!!! my inbox is now full of junk messages that say LAST CHANCE HOLIDAY CLEARANCE SALE!!!

In America, your last chance is never really your last chance. That's one of the things that makes this country great.

Meanwhile, I'm able to knit for myself again. The lopapeysa (remember the lopapeysa?) grew another sleeve.

You may recall that I decided to just follow the pattern for this one, aside from changing everything about it. That meant coming up with a new chart for the colorwork about the cuff. Not a tall order, as the yoke contains elements that are easy to echo in a smaller circumference.

After the colorwork passage, I knew I wanted purple cuffs. I plan to wear this while teaching, and my flailing wrists + purple cuffs should = wide-awake students.

Notice, though, that there are no needles in the cuff; nor has it been bound off. That's because the photograph was made right before I ripped back the entire sleeve.

Lesson learned:

It does no good to try on a top-down sleeve repeatedlyif you refuse to acknowledge that the sleeve is way too tightand correct your course.

That little voice in my head kept telling me it was fine, because I like a "snug fit." But this was not a "snug fit," this was cutting off the circulation to my fingers. Granted, the typical baggy generosity of an unshaped lopapeysa doesn't do a fireplug body like mine any favors–some shaping is a must. But lopi should never be expected to stretch like the Lycra in Kim Kardashian's Sunday drawers.

Learn Along with Franklin: Part I

In keeping with the theme of learning new things in the new year, I've decided it might be interesting and useful to share some of the lessons to found in my collection of antique and vintage children's books. This will be an occasional series–I'll post whenever I run across a particularly sparkly gem of wisdom.

For today, we have a word about multiculturalism/architecture from Health and Safety Series: Everyday Living by Brownell, Ireland, and Giles, published in 1935. This is from "Unit Five: The House You Live In."

48 comments:

As an addendum to your reference to sleeve fitting, I have just told my close knitting friends to inform me that when I assume I've added enough length to a sweater body for myself, I need to knit for 2 to 3 more inches.

This cracked me up! I love the part about the Kardashian drawers and I can totally relate to the little voice in your head trying to tell you that it was all fine and that you like "snug." I share that voice in my head and it's always so beckoningly optimistic, encouraging me to power on with an "it will all work out" attitude... not really a good approach some of the time. Oh well. Thanks for sharing!

I think....no, I must....must not have anything in my hand or in my mouth and going between the two when reading your blogs or posts. Because it could end up all over the place. But I was prepared for it this time.

Happy New Year. And tell Delores that the tree could have been recycled if she did not want to use it again.

LOL - as always! :) Love that Dolores took out your tree at 4 am - that could be at my house! Sympathies about the sleeve. I've found I have to rip back far more often that you'd think sometimes, lol. Good luck finishing up and Happy New Year! :)

I had a similar issue with a sweater I knit this fall. I noticed that the sleeve cap seemed a bit low and the girth of the sweater seemed a bit wide for my size, but ignored both until trying on. Turns out, the body was wide so a tiny sleeve cap (means NARROW sleeve width) works ONLY because it hits mid-bicep. Stupid me! I put the sweater together to the point of a gigantic cross before figuring this out.

The final sweater has a 2" wide gusset running from the sweater hem to cuff. It now fits beautifully, but I wish the designer had mentioned the sleeve cap decision (and what it meant) BEFORE I knit the ****ing sleeve cap.

I had to rip back my new pair of knee socks, Sock 1 (though golf stockings would be more accurate)because it wasn't long enough, but I was in de Nile for quite some time. Which is probably why I've just finished #1 though I cast on Thanksgiving evening.

Aunt Polly was a large Norwegian woman who lived life with gusto and ran through 3 and a half husbands (she might not have married the last one) before World War II. In her golden years, she settled down a bit, but every Christmas she would get assiduously into the eggnog, and in due time, would fall into the Christmas tree. With the early fifties strings of lights and the lead foil tinsel, sparks would fly and all the lights in the house would go out, and all us kids would cry, "Aunt Polly's all lit up again."

I hate to be pedantic, but it seems that the book is ill informed on its Native American dwellings. I believe that this is a Tipi (or TeePee) of the Lakota Sioux, not a wigwam of the Delaware and Iroquois (which were dome shaped and not nearly as mobile). One should be more conscientious when teaching the young and impressionable.

Just had my "six degrees of separation" moment. Guy came in my shop (yarn store, of course)and we do the usual chit chat and i realize that i recognize him, from his ravelry avatar, we had "chatted" at some point. Then we chat about a skein of skacel merino lace and he mentions going there (skacel home world). I ask "men's knitting retreat?" he gives me a quizzical look and i told him I had read about it on Franklin's blog. Then he says what a nice person Franklin Habit is, and what intelligent man he is...thought you might like to know.by the way, Damien Memorial School is now admitting girls.

Copyright and Posting Notice

All original content of this blog, both words and images, is held in copyright by F. Habit. Use of any kind, in any medium, for any reason without express, prior written consent is prohibited.

Permission is not granted for the posting of any content from this site to Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, or any other Web site.

Please do not provide links to any product, service, organization or cause when leaving comments unless directly related to the topic of the post. Unsolicited advertising will be deleted and repeat offenders will be blocked.

When in doubt, please ask. I'm not mean, I'm just committed to preserving the quality of experience for my readers.